World
Russia ‘tightening noose’ on Mariupol; Biden tells China not to fuel assault
Russia said its forces were “tightening the noose” around the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol on Friday and concern grew over mass civilian casualties as the United States again warned China against aiding Moscow in its invasion.
Russia’s advance in Ukraine has largely stalled, and its troops, frustrated by fierce Ukrainian resistance, have blasted residential areas to rubble. On Friday, missiles landed near Lviv, a western city where thousands have fled for refuge, Reuters reported.
In Mariupol, the scene of heavy bombardment, officials estimated 80% of the city’s homes had been damaged and that 1,000 people may still be trapped in makeshift bomb shelters beneath a destroyed theatre.
Nearly 5,000 Ukrainians were evacuated from Mariupol on Friday, officials said, and residents reported seeing dead bodies along the roadside as they fled the city.
“We were careful and didn’t want the children to see the bodies, so we tried to shield their eyes,” said Nick Osychenko, the CEO of a Mariupol TV station who fled the city with six members of his family.
“We were nervous the whole journey. It was frightening, just frightening.”
Ukraine said it had rescued 130 people from the basement of a Mariupol theatre that was flattened by Russian strikes two days ago. Russia denied hitting the theatre and says it does not target civilians.
China is the one big power that has yet to condemn Russia’s assault, and Washington fears Beijing may be considering giving Moscow financial and military support, something that both Russia and China deny, Reuters reported.
In a video call that lasted around two hours, US President Joe Biden warned China’s President Xi Jinping on Friday of “implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia” in Ukraine, the White House said.
The White House later said that sanctioning Beijing, the world’s largest exporter, was an option, though it did not detail what constituted material support, Reuters reported.
The mayor of Mariupol confirmed to the BBC that fighting had reached the centre of the city, where some 400,000 people have been trapped for over two weeks, sheltering from bombardment that has cut electricity, heating and water supply.
Regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said around 35,000 people had managed to leave the city in recent days, many on foot or in convoys of private cars, but near-constant shelling was preventing humanitarian aid from getting in.
Jakob Kern, emergency coordinator for the crisis at the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), said Ukraine’s “food supply chain is falling apart” with insecurity and fear of attack hindering the movement of goods.
WFP buys nearly half of its wheat from Ukraine to feed people in global crisis zones, and Kern said the war could cause “collateral hunger” in poor countries worldwide.
World
Rescuers search for missing after deadly North Cyprus ferry accident
Rescuers were searching on Monday for survivors a day after a ferry capsized off Northern Cyprus, leaving eight people dead and 18 missing, authorities said.
The ferry departed from the northern port of Girne around midday on Sunday bound for the Turkish mainland but capsized shortly afterwards, triggering a major rescue operation. There were 267 people on board, of whom 241 were rescued, while eight died and 18 remained missing, according to local authorities. Their nationalities were not immediately disclosed.
Several survivors told local media they heard a blast shortly before the vessel overturned, while others said the ferry had begun taking on water before the accident, about four nautical miles into the journey.
Police detained the captain and more than a dozen others following the incident. The captain and eight others were brought before a judge early Monday and formally arrested, according to the official Cypriot news agency TAK.
Northern Cyprus has declared three days of national mourning for the victims.
Footage broadcast by Turkish television showed passengers wearing life jackets clinging to the overturned ferry’s orange hull. The vessel later sank completely and is now lying at a depth of 514 metres, Northern Cyprus Transport Minister Erhan Arikli said.
Arikli said recovering the ferry’s “black box” could help investigators determine the cause of the disaster. Survivors gave differing accounts of the incident, with some reporting an explosion at the front of the vessel and others saying there had not been enough safety equipment on board.
World
Trump floats idea of renaming Atlantic or Pacific Ocean
US President Donald Trump has suggested that the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean could be next for a name change, shortly after signing an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”
Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump joked that after renaming a gulf and a lake, the next step could be an ocean.
“We have a gulf and we have a lake,” Trump said. “Now all we need is an ocean. Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”
The remarks came as Trump signed the order changing the name of Lake Ontario on U.S. government maps, following his earlier move to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
Trump has also restored the former name “Mount McKinley” for Alaska’s highest peak, reversing the official use of Denali adopted during the Obama administration.
The latest proposal comes amid increasingly strained relations between Washington and Ottawa. Trump has repeatedly criticised Canada over trade and has previously suggested that the country should be treated as a U.S. state.
While the U.S. government can determine the names used on its own official maps, it cannot compel Canada, other countries or international organisations to adopt the changes.
For now, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans remain firmly on the map under their familiar names — but Trump has made clear he is not ruling out another change.
World
US hits Egyptian bank branches with Iran sanctions as war marks six months
The U.S. Treasury said it views Banque Misr’s six UAE branches as a “critical node” for the Iranian government’s access to U.S. dollars.
The U.S. imposed Iran-related sanctions on an Egyptian bank on Friday, part of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s campaign to increase economic pressure to try to break a stalemate six months into Washington’s war with Iran, Reuters reported.
Treasury said it moved to cut off Banque Misr’s branches in the United Arab Emirates from dollar transactions for its dealings with Iran. In a statement, it said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed a rule that would revoke Banque Misr UAE’s correspondent banking access to U.S. financial institutions.
The action, teased by Bessent on Monday as a “major announcement” of a secondary sanction on an international bank, was first reported by the Financial Times.
“Treasury promised to sever every economic lifeline Tehran has left and finally end the threat of the Iranian regime,” Bessent said in a statement. “We also warned that Iran’s enablers cannot continue to enjoy access to the U.S. dollar and the global financial system. Banque Misr UAE decided to find out the hard way, and today, we are taking the first step in holding it accountable for its continued, egregious support of the Iranian regime.”
Egypt’s central bank said on Friday that the U.S. action only affected Banque Misr’s UAE branches and did not extend to any other Egyptian banks. The Central Bank of Egypt said in a statement that it and Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs were in contact with the U.S. authorities about the measures.
A Treasury official also said the action only applies to Banque Misr’s UAE branches, allowing the bank to continue dollar transactions through its head office in Cairo and other foreign branches. These include Paris, Frankfurt, Riyadh, Beirut and Djibouti, according to Banque Misr’s website.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control separately issued sanctions targeting the manager of Iran’s Bank Melli branch in the UAE as well as a Hong Kong entity that it said helped launder money for a sanctioned Iranian exchange house.
Banque Misr UAE did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on a public holiday. The sanctioned Bank Melli branch manager, Reza Mohammad Taeedi, also did not immediately respond to a Reuters email requesting comment.
The U.S. Treasury said it views Banque Misr’s six UAE branches as a “critical node” for the Iranian government’s access to U.S. dollars.
The department said it estimates that between January 2024 and June 2026, Banque Misr UAE processed approximately $1.8 billion in transactions for 103 companies that are potentially part of Iranian shadow banking networks.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott said in a statement that Bank Melli has served as a critical financial hub for Iran’s armed forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, both entities under U.S. sanctions.
Iran has urged other nations not to join new U.S. sanctions.
-
Latest News4 days agoPakistan open to state-to-state dialogue with Afghanistan on terrorism
-
Sport4 days agoATN secures exclusive rights to broadcast T20I series in India across Afghanistan
-
Regional5 days agoQatar PM to visit Tehran to pursue mediation efforts
-
Latest News4 days agoTrump says overnight US withdrawal from Bagram left Afghanistan vulnerable to collapse
-
Latest News4 days agoStandardized orthography for Dari and Pashto languages is essential: official
-
World3 days agoUS hits Egyptian bank branches with Iran sanctions as war marks six months
-
Latest News3 days agoTajikistan to receive military equipment to strengthen Afghan border
-
Business3 days agoTAPI pipeline nears first gas sales in Afghanistan
